Animated toy



G. B. STARR ANIMATED TOY July 3, 1956 Filed Jan. 25, 1954 INVENTOR.George 5. S70

ite States Patent L ANHVIATED' TOY George B. Starr, Sausalito, Calif.Application January 25, 1954, Serial No.'=;406,015 2 Claims. (Cl. 46-92)This invention relates to improvements in animated toys and hasparticular reference to a toy figure which will simulate the movementsof a person paddling a canoe, wherein the hands and arms are attached toa paddle and are moved in such a manner as to cause the free end of thepaddle to move in a vertical path, forming an ellipse, the top of whichis substantially flat.

A further object of this invention is to produce a toy which Whenpositioned in a boat-like structure, such as a canoe, and animated, willcause the canoe to progress over the surface of a body of water.

A further object is to produce a device which is economical tomanufacture and attractive in appearance.

Other objects and advantages will be apparent during the course of thefollowing description.

In the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification and inwhich like numbers are employed to designate like parts throughout thesame,

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of my toy;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary perspective view showing the rowing strokeadjacent the side of the boat;

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic view of the mechanical linkage.

In producing my toy, I have provided a mechanical movement, which whenpositioned in a figure and completely hidden from view, will cause thearms of the figure to transfer two different motions to a paddle. Thesetwo motions produce a lifelike appearance to the toy when under motion.

In the accompanying drawings, wherein for the purpose of illustration isshown a preferred embodiment of my invention, the numeral 5 designates aboat, here shown as a canoe, having a thwart 6 upon which a figure sits.The figure in this instance is designated as a whole by the numeral 7,and has a right arm 8 and a left arm 9. The lower part of the left armis designated by the numeral 11 and is secured to the upper portion 9 bya rubber elbow-shaped piece 12. The upper arm is pivoted to the body aswill be later seen.

The left hand 13 is connected to the arm portion 11 by a universallyyieldable wrist portion 14, this wrist portion being preferably ofrubber to permit a universal movement, this left hand being fixedlyattached to the top end of the paddle 17.

The right hand 16 is fixedly secured to the handle portion of the paddle17, this being at about the middle portion of the paddle. This hand 16is in turn pivoted to the arm 8 by a concealed pivot 15, which is inturn covered by a rubber wrist portion.

In order to move the hands and the paddle, I provide a motor 18, whichdrives a worm 19, which in turn drives a worm gear 21, which has a pairof opposed crank arms 22, one of which is shown in Fig. 3, it beingunderstood that the other crank arm is 135 degrees removed.

The crank arms 22 are in turn connected by links 23 and 24 to cranks 26and 27, respectively. The crank 26 is in turn connected to a shaft 28,which is in turn rigidly connected to the arm 8 so as to form an axisextend- 2,752,728 Patented July-:3, 1956 2 ing transversely'oftheupperportion: of said. arm,-.-while the .crank 27 is connected; to ashaft29,-whichis'-in.turn rigidly connected to the arm 9 so. as to.formsannaxis extending transversely of the upper. portionofss aid. arm.

It will be observed from the: drawing:that.the.crank arms 22are slightlyshorter than crank arms 26 and.-27 respectively. This slight differencein length prevents any possibility of jamming. .at thesextreme lends softravel .of thislinkagen While the crankcarrns 22 movenin a circularpath, the crank arms '26 and 27 oscillate, and therefore if they were ofthe same length as arms 22 they would tend to jam as they reached theextreme ends of travel, due to the fact that they would be in a straightline with crank arms 22. Links 23 and 24 are rigid and their lengths areequal.

It may be further pointed out that in assembly of the toy the anglebetween the crank arms 26 and a longitudinal axis taken through theupper portion of the arm 8 may be adjusted somewhat to achieve smoothoperating action. This is also true of the angle between the crank arm27 and the upper portion of the arm 9.

The angle between the tive to the common axis the right hand 16 and thepaddle takes. an The left arm follows the lag and as the right armreaches the rear of its stroke, the left arm lowers the paddle handle.The right arm then starts its return stroke while the left arm is down,and the paddle blade forwardly in a substantially flat path and thencurves down to start its power stroke. The universal, and wrist of theleft end of the paddle but to the material, size, shape and arrangementof parts may be resorted to without departing from the spirit of theinvention or the scope of the subjoined claims. Having thus described myinvention, I claim: 1. An animated toy comprising a boat having apaddle, a figure of a human body supported in the boat, including wristmember interconnecting said left hand and the associated lower armportion, and means supported within the boat and operatively connectedto the pivotal connections of the upper arm portions for swinging saidright and left arms about the axis of said pivotal connections with thetorso, said means including a rotatable crank having crank armsconnected thereto in fixed 135 angular relationship, a crank arm rigidlyconneccted to the pivot of each arm with said torso, and rigid linkspivotally connecting the crank arms of said rotatable crank to the crankarms of the torso.

2. A toy as set forth in claim 1, wherein the universally yieldableelbow member and the yieldahle wrist 5 member are formed of rubber.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,433,886 Gordon Oct. 31, 1922 10 2,060,619 Jacobson Nov. 10, 1936FOREIGN PATENTS 131,027 France June 4, 1879

